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Prairie fire expected to regenerate plant growth

Experts said the planned dozen-acre prairie fire at Lake Zorinsky Wednesday afternoon will help plant growth.

Alicia Mullarkey with the biology department at the University of Nebraska-Omaha said UNO planned the burn, along with the city and several volunteers, to improve the ecosystem.

"It basically helps to regenerate plant growth, prairie plant growth, the grasses, the wildflowers. It provides kind of, once it's burned, a kind of habitat for the animals, and it keeps the woody trees and shrubs out of the prairie, which invade if you don't have fire,” Mullarkey said.

Crews said they try to do a controlled burn to every prairie at the lake once every three years.